Mayor’s Telstra Technology Award finalists announced

The City’s innovative young minds are keen to show off their creativity with record entries in this year’s Mayor’s Telstra Technology Award.

Mayor Tom Tate said 31 entries had been submitted, which made choosing the 12 finalists a difficult task.

“The quality of entries was amazing and goes to show there is a real hunger among our youth to pursue careers in technology and innovation,” he said.

Run in partnership with Telstra and Bond University, Cr Tate said the award presented an opportunity for students to dream big and prepare for the future.

The 12 finalist teams now move through to the second phase of the competition which involves mentoring from Bond teaching staff and technical representatives from Telstra.

The 12 finalists are:

Emmanuel College - Purification Unit: A smart autonomous wireless sensor network that helps overcome the serious problem of dirty drinking water, especially in third world countries.

Hillcrest College - Flexi Energy: Combines functionality with innovation to create an item bringing clothing and energy production together in a new, exciting way.

Merrimac State High School - Portable Defibrillator: Revolutionary concept founded on existing technology with a key focus on the portability of what would normally be a bulky device.

Merrimac State High School - Bin Fun: Gaming machine which uses recyclables as tokens for games to play. The game mixes a passion for gaming while promoting recycling and waste management with the community.

Pacific Pines State High School - Safe-T-Keys: A small key casing with a fingerprint scanner and blood alcohol monitor for drivers of cars. Helps to combat drink driving.

Assisi Catholic College - Semper Vigilo: Camera placed in the entrance of school carparks which reads number plates and speed of cars. Provides a solution for various issues in schools, such as congestion, security and safety.

Saint Stephen’s College - Safety First: An app to assist teenagers in communicating with their guardians to let them know they are okay while they are out.

Southport State High School - Toroidal Displacer: A new version of a propeller that turns the circular motion of motors into a parallel downward force. This technology solves planet earth’s issue of land consumption and could potentially lead to flying cars, houses, farms and even cities.

The Southport School – Dietary and Diabetic App: App that scans food barcodes, which transports data to a diabetic person’s insulin pump and automatically administers the correct level of medication.

Varsity College – Watch Out: Mobile phone app that sends a notification to a pedestrian who is walking 30 metres or less near a tram.